Iran International
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is coming under growing pressure for what critics call his failure to match tough talk on economic reform with concrete action.
The pressure comes amid rising inflation, stagnant growth and deepening shortages of energy and water that have strained public patience.
Experts warn the situation could deteriorate further next year, when the full impact of renewed UN sanctions triggered by European powers is expected to hit Iran’s already fragile economy.
Economist Morteza Afghah told the moderate outlet Fararu on November 12 that Pezeshkian’s call for eight-percent annual growth—echoed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—was “unattainable even without the war with Israel and Europe’s snapback sanctions.”
He said Iran’s fifth development plan had already fallen far behind schedule and criticized Pezeshkian for repeatedly insisting that “major economic problems should be solved” without offering specifics.
“Which of the people’s problems can be solved by repeating that over and over?” he asked.
'Wasteful'
Conservative commentator Vahid Yaminpour made a similar point in a televised debate with a member of Pezeshkian’s media team, saying the president had invoked the country’s economic malaise nine times in less than a week without offering a semblance of a solution.
One such instance came earlier that day, when Pezeshkian criticized the large annual budgets allocated to organizations he said served no useful purpose.
“Start cutting those budgets from my own office,” he told lawmakers, noting that the presidential office employs nearly 4,000 staff, though he believes it could function with 400.
Economist Mehdi Pazouki urged the president to move beyond rhetoric and impose discipline on government spending, highlighting the proliferation of parallel bodies performing overlapping tasks.
“The irregular expansion of the government is one of the main reasons for the rising inflation rate,” he told Fararu. “Without solving this problem, it will be too difficult to overcome inflation.”
Pazouki also ridiculed Pezeshkian’s pledge to deliver a “budget without deficit,” calling the assertion a “joke.”
'Unaware'
Last month, even the conservative establishment daily Jomhouri Eslami advised the president: “Cut off the budget of organizations that have no achievements. The only thing they do is act like devoted disciples of those who fund them.”
Such criticism has been leveled at every administration, and Pezeshkian appears no more capable—or willing—than his predecessors to confront it. But he is also developing a growing PR problem.
During Pezeshkian’s parliament address on Tuesday, speaker—and elections rival—Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the president that his economy minister Ahmad Meydari and his spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani did not grasp basic economic concepts.
Pezeshkian admitted he was unaware of what his own spokesperson had told the nation.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.
